Photo by Gene Slaske
St. Joseph’s Church, Mason City, Iowa
Posted on 11/27/2009 11:42:17 AM PST by GonzoII
Photo by Gene Slaske
St. Joseph’s Church, Mason City, Iowa
By DEXTER DUGGAN
Here’s a break with the past that Barack Obama should have made, but instead as president he chose to continue the culture war that radical leftists ignited beginning in the 1960s.
For all his reputation as an appeaser of foreign terrorists and dictatorial socialists, the battle strategy of Obama against U. S. social stability keeps orthodox believers wide awake and on guard.
Believers know they’re in a deadly fight, not only for moral values as Obama packs the government with unhinged radicals on everything from abortion to homosexual militancy, but also for their very lives as he rams forward death- dealing Obamacare.
They won’t be lulled into sleep on the watchtower, enabling Obama’s culture warriors to batter down the fortress gates.
Unlike the frogs in the story that boiled to death because they didn’t realize their water temperature was so imperceptibly rising, Obama keeps the scorching heat pouring on his targets every second. It’s baptism of fire with a twist. If British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was fooled into believing in a false “peace in our time” in the 1930s, orthodox Christians in 2009 know Obama’s radicals offer no peace but only a sword.
It’s not that Obama initiated the war himself. Culture-poisoners and radical abortionists were pushing to capture the legal system when Obama was little more than a former fetus himself, lucky to havegotten out in one piece from a pregnancy thatRoe v. Wade’s Justice Harry Blackmun surely would have pronounced to be rife with “ distressful life and future.”
But the radicals hoped that Obama in the White House could cement their revolution.
Big failure. When Christians start talking anew about civil disobedience and begin signing a declaration that quickly gathers tens of thousands of signatures, the Obamaites should know their culture war has miscalculated quite fatally.
The week before Thanksgiving, traditional- morality leaders gathered in the nation’s capital on November 20 to announce the “ Manhattan Declaration,” a statement of conscience decrying the accelerating trends against morality.
From A to Z, from Dr. Daniel Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in North Carolina, to Bishop David Zubik, of the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, there were 149 signers, both church officials and laity, to begin.
By the predawn hours of the following Tuesday, November 24, there were 73,710 signatures online at the web site, manhattan declaration. org. The declaration had caught fire.
The first signers included Archbishop Charles Chaput, OFM Cap., of Denver, Bishop Salvatore Cordileone of Oakland, Calif., James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, Senior Pastor Jonathan Falwell of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, Lynchburg, Va., Fr. Joseph Fessio, SJ, founder of Ignatius Press, Bishop Harry Jackson Jr., senior pastor of Hope Christian Church, Beltsville, Md., Josh McDowell, founder of Josh McDowell Ministries, Dr. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, David Neff, editor- in- chief of
Christianity Today, Rev. William Owens, chairman of the Coalition of African- American Pastors, and Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington, D. C.
The six- page declaration concluded: “ Because we honor justice and the common good, we will not comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions, embryodestructive research, assisted suicide and euthanasia, or any other anti- life act; nor will we bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriages or the equivalent, or refrain from proclaiming the truth, as we know it, about morality and immorality and marriage and the family. We will fully and ungrudgingly render to Caesar what is Caesar’s. But under no circumstances will we render to Caesar what is God’s.”
Citing the Christian teaching that civil disobedience sometimes not only is permitted but required against tyranny, the Manhattan Declaration noted the efforts to compel pro-life institutions, physicians, nurses, and other health care personnel not only to refer for abortion but even to participate in it.
The declaration also pointed to “the use of anti-discrimination statutes to force religious institutions, businesses, and service providers of various sorts to comply with activities they judge to be deeply immoral or go out of business. After the judicial imposition of ‘ samesex marriage’ in Massachusetts, forexample, Catholic Charities chose with great reluctance to end its century- long work of helping to place orphaned children in good homes rather than comply with a legal mandate that it place children in same- sex households in violation of Catholic moral teaching.
“ In New Jersey,” the declaration continued, “after the establishment of a quasi- marital ‘ civil unions’ scheme, a Methodist institution was stripped of its tax- exempt status when it declined, as a matter of religious conscience, to permit a facility it owned and operated to be used for ceremonies blessing homosexual unions. In Canada and some European nations, Christian clergy have been prosecuted for preaching Biblical norms against the practice of homosexuality. New hate- crime laws in America raise the specter of the same practice here.”
Rather than Christians supposedly forcing their morality on others, the declaration observed: “ It is ironic that those who today assert a right to kill the unborn, aged, and disabled and also a right to engage in immoral sexual practices, and even a right to have relationships integrated around these practices be recognized and blessed by law — suchpersons claiming these ‘ rights’ are very often in the vanguard of those who would trample upon the freedom of others to express their religious and moral commitments to the sanctity of life and to the dignity of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife.”
Asked byThe Wanderer if rejection of Obamacare was a motivating factor in producing the declaration, a Washington, D. C., reporter replied, “Obamacare was part of it, as they also mentioned the whole thing about health care workers being forced to take part in abortions. But the whole samesex marriage thing was a factor, too. What’s happening in Washington, D. C. — the city council is pushing through a gay- marriage law that they are refusing to put to a vote — weighed heavily on their minds as well.”
The declaration’s drafting committee was Princeton University Dr. Robert George, Beeson Divinity School’s Dr. Timothy George, and Prison Fellowship founder Charles Colson.
A United Voice
One of the declaration’s early signers, Alan Sears, head of the Scottsdale, Ariz.- based AllianceDefense Fund ( ADF), said in a statement: “ Rarely before have so many American Christian leaders, from across the theological spectrum, come together in one accord to stand in support of religious liberty, life, marriage, and the family. ADF attorneys are in courtrooms across America tirelessly defending these principles from constant attack. That’s why it’s a great privilege for me to join with Orthodox, Catholic, and evangelical Christians in adding my signature, as an individual, to this historic document, and I hope others will join in support of this effort.”
Another early signer, Phoenix Catholic Bishop Thomas Olmsted, said in part: “ I am especially pleased when we can join with other Christians in promoting and defending vital issues of our day, which have come under increasing attack. The Manhattan Declaration provides an avenue for those who hold moral principles, based on the Bible and traditional Christian teaching, to speak with a united voice for the good of our nation, including its most vulnerable citizens. I invite all Catholics of our diocese to go to the web site and to express your support for this declaration.”
Tony Perkins, president of the Washington, D. C.,- based Family Research Council, said: “ Without question there will be critics yelling ‘ separation of church and state.’ This is silly: We are imposing our denominational views on no one. We are bringing our faith to bear on public policy because we see the efforts of the left as a frontal assault on human dignity, the American family, and the future of our children. For this reason, we will not retreat an inch and will make the case for life, marriage, and religious liberty in the public square.”
One of the signers, Dobson, in the November issue of his own newsletter,Family News From Dr. James Dobson, noted Obama’s lies about abortion funding and conscience protection, as well as Obama’s appointments of sexual and political radicals to prominent government positions.
“Although I have shared some disturbing trends in this letter about the direction our culture is moving,” Dobson wrote, “ there is reason for hope for a return to sanity in our public and private lives. The Lord would not want us to despair. Instead, let’s use our voices to support biblical truth at the ballot box and throughout the culture at large.”
The Wanderer has been providing its readers with news and commentary from
an orthodox Catholic perspective for over 135 years. From vital issues
affecting the Catholic Church to the political events which threaten
our Catholic faith. The Wanderer is at the forefront every week
with its timely coverage and its cutting edge editorials.
When I signed it, someone had said that it had jumped from 20,000 to 100,000 almost overnight.
Do you know how many sigs now?
150,000 as of the 26th.
Everyone need to sign it.
Over 167K as of about 15 minutes ago.
1-ONE million would be great before Christmas
Available at the link is a pdf file of the declaration itself ( a fast loading pdf file, I must say, not many online pdf's) which is 6 pages, a shorter summary, and a page in which one can sign onto the list of agreement of the declaration itself.
100 more signatories in the last five minutes for a total of 168,291 at about 12:08 PM Pacific
This one was instantaneous. Whoever put it together, built it lean & efficient. bravo to them for that part, too...
ML/NJ
168,488 at 3:22 EST
168669 by 3:34 your time...
bump
I signed it.
bump!
170,315 as of last minute.
Four adults in my family just signed.
Please be my guest. Would like to see this reach 1 million soon.
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